Welcome back to Topeka for the 2012 session!
We know it will be an especially challenging year, and we appreciate your commitment on behalf of our state to be here to address each challenge that presents itself to our fellow citizens and us.
We are committed to assist you in the coming months on any topic relating to the community network of services for persons with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD). We hope you will call on us at any time, with any questions or any need for additional information.
In the coming months we will be in regular communication with you about two central issues facing the community I/DD network in Kansas: the budget, and the proposal of the Administration to fold the community I/DD waiver network into the proposed mega-Medicaid package to be managed by a national network of insurance entities. We strongly oppose the inclusion of I/DD long-term care services in the Administration’s managed care plan, and would appreciate the opportunity to brief you on the important reasons why.
Budget:
As regards the budget, we will provide more detail as soon as we are able to review the plans of the Administration for FY 2013. It is sufficient at this point to point out the two recurring and intertwined issues which have lingered now for several years. The first relates to the numbers of persons who still wait for needed services and supports, which now total more than 4,800 children and adults. The second is the continuing erosion of community reimbursement rates. Both items are in need of your attention, and should finally be among those items at or near the top of your priority lists.
We recognize that you hear many requests for funding enhancements, but we also hope you recognize (and if not, that you seek verification from your legislative staff) that our network has been hanging on for some time without meaningful support from three successive administrations. Waiting lists grow, reimbursement rates stagnate, and the system becomes weakened. These challenges will not go away.
Historically, it has been the legislative branch that has stepped forward to address community I/DD budget issues. It is our earnest hope you will consider doing so again this year.
Managed care:
The Administration’s planned inclusion of I/DD long-term care services in Medicaid managed care will have a significant impact on Kansans with I/DD and their families.
Our organization has met with the Administration for nearly a year on this matter, and however accessible and collegial they have been, they have been emphatically against our request, to exclude DD waiver services from the Administration’s Medicaid managed care proposal.
Only a few states in the nation have even attempted to include I/DD long-term care services in Medicaid managed care models. Other states that are considering inclusion are beginning the process slowly, through a phased-in approach. Nationally, the jury is still very much “out” on whether managed care has helped or harmed persons with I/DD and the systems they rely on. So-called “managed care” models are simply different strategic approaches to the management of medical insurance. The basic strategies which apply to those activities do not remotely fit our program, which is NOT a medical program.
The families with whom we work on a daily basis are certain to be in touch with you in the coming session, as will we, until or unless the Administration and/or the Legislature, takes appropriate action to remove the ID/DD waiver from the proposal to hand the Medicaid program over to the Insurance industry. Families have trusted the State/Community partnership to meet the long term needs of their sons and daughters, and we have always believed that the State would honor that partnership as well.
The proposed hand-off of that partnership to out of state insurance companies will violate that trust. We hope you will take the time to visit with us, our families and community leaders as we work to educate you on this programmatic challenge.
Thank you!
We look forward to working with you this year, and wish you the best for your work in 2012.
InterHab
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